Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker

[Diane]

Rating: 4 Stars
Read: July 2017

Despite the subject matter, I really enjoyed it and read it in one sitting. I didn't realize until I was part way through that it was actually the 3rd book in The Color Purple Collection/Trilogy. Initially I was concerned since I skipped the second book. However, it was apparently not a continuation of either of the first two books and did well as a stand alone. The only link is that it used a couple of the characters found in the previous books.

The book is essentially about the practice of female genital mutilation in some parts of Africa. The main character, Tashi, is an African immigrant who feels the pressure to become Westernized, yet wants to identify with her traditional culture. She lost a sister to a botched circumcision, yet still feels compelled to follow tradition to have it done. Alice Walker learned about the practice while doing volunteer work in Kenya as a young woman, prior to becoming an author. The subject haunted her and she felt the need to write a book to raise awareness of the dangers of this practice. She researched the subject well and received a lot of flack from proponents of the practice.

Overall an excellent book, but with a lot of parts that will make you squeamish. I look forward to reading the remaining book in the trilogy.

[Kristel]

Read 2010
Story of Tashi. Tashi is an African woman who tries to follow the traditions of her native people but suffers physical and emotional trauma.

[Diane]

Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
3.5 stars

“Even Cleopatra was circumcised, he says. Nefertiti, also.”

I was well into my 20s before I learned about the practice of female genital mutilation, I can still remember the article I was reading in the Los Angeles Times. I was shocked to learn about the practice but also that it was still going on, this was 30 years ago and I can only hope that the practice has decreased.

“My mother used to say genital mutilation, which predates all the major religions, was a kind of foot binding.”

“An American, I said, sighing, but understanding my love of my adopted country perhaps for the first time: an American looks like a wounded person whose wound is hidden from others, and sometimes from herself. An American looks like me.”

“But of course the tsunga was to the traditional elders merely a witch they could control, an extension of their own dominating power.”

I am a fan of Alice Walker’s writing and I loved The Color Purple. This book about a very important subject did not have the same emotional draw for me as The Color Purple.